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Big changes ahead for Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s 2018-19 season

By April Baer, OPB
Published: April 4, 2018, 9:40pm

ASHLAND, Ore. — The Oregon Shakespeare Festival has announced its next season of plays. The year will mark a transition and a big change in scheduling.

The festival’s artistic director, Bill Rausch, is leaving for a job in New York.

His last season includes a traveling production of “The Comedy of Errors” in Spanish and English, a production of John Waters’ “Hairspray” and premieres of three commissioned works: Octavio Solis’ “Mother Road” (a LatinX take on “The Grapes of Wrath”), the Jewish-American love story “Indecent” and the comedic inter-generational story “Between Two Knees.”

OSF usually runs some shows in October through winter. Others begin in late spring or summer and run through fall. This year, the company will do the same number of plays but take one production on the road.

Executive director Cynthia Rider said there’s another factor in play: wildfires.

“Four of the five last years we’ve had to cancel performances due to air quality,” Rider said. The new schedule gets people to shows earlier in fire season, hopefully meaning fewer cancellations.

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